ISLAMABAD: The meeting of the board of trustees (BoT) of International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) on November 30 (tomorrow) as decided by President Dr Arif Alvi about 45 days ago is not going to be held as scheduled because its agenda was not issued on time, Dawn has learnt.

On the request of Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, who is member of the board of trustees, President Alvi, being chancellor of the university, had decided to hold the meeting on November 30.

The rector of the university was supposed to issue the agenda about 15 days before the meeting, however, reliable sources said the agenda was not issued until Tuesday. Therefore, there is no chance of the meeting being held, they said.

The sources also said that after issuing the agenda, the rector provides a brief of the meeting to all members of the board two weeks before the meeting.

However, the university in a highly questionable move did not issue the agenda on time and even last week the IIUI wrote to the President Office, stating that as per university`s rules and regulations 15 days were required for issuing the agenda and sharing the brief to members, pleading that instead of November 30 the meeting should be held on December 11.

Sources in the education ministry and the IIUI also confirmed that the university management through a letter had requested that the meeting should be held on December 11 instead of November 30. IIUI spokesperson Nasir Farid, when contacted, that he had no knowledge when the meeting will take place.

Asked about the issuance of the agenda and sharing of the brief with members, he confirmed that so far no agenda had been issued.

`As per practice, the agenda should be issued some two weeks before the meeting as university has to share brief of the meeting with all members for their preparation. Secondly, university also engage BoT members including international members for attending the meeting well before time. So far, no agenda has been issued,` he said.

The meeting of BoT is supposed to be held at least once every year but since June 2020 the board has failed to meet. After taking charge as CJP Isa had sought details of various offices of the IIUI in a bid to update himself on the affairs of the university before the meeting of the board.

But, he was not provided the details on time until the president of Pakistan intervened. Recently, however, he was provided the required details.

Earlier, after getting a cold-shoulder response from the IIUI about required information, the registrar office of the apex court on Oct 4 wrote a letter to Mr Alvi seeking a meetingoftheboard.Inresponse,an additionalsecretary at the President House through a letter informed the registrar Supreme Court last month `...[President] has been pleased to approve convening of BoT meeting on November 30, 2023 at President Secretariat Islamabad.

What was to be taken up by BoT meeting In June 2020, the 14th meeting of the BoT while deliberating on the appointment of the president (vice chancellor) of the IIUI agreed with the proposal of the chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and instructed the IIUI rector to frame and finalise rules for the appointment of the university president through the board of governors in consultation with HEC.

The implementation of this task was to be completed in three months and draft rules were supposed to be presented before the board of governorsfor approval and to be placed in the next meeting of the BoT.

The meeting of the BoT, which has been facing delay, besides other issues is supposed to get an update on the matter.

The sources said so far the rules were not approved by the BoG. Once the rules are approved by BoG and subsequently by BoT, the president of IIUI could not be appointed on alleged pick-and-choose basis rather he will be appointed through a competitive process like the heads of other universities.